Don`t know where you seen a Marlin 39 that was rough or a Henery that was smooth. Nothing wrong with a Henery, but the Marlin is a much better gun. I have had guys tell me how good their Henery shoot, but have never seen one out shoot a Marlin, ever.

My "research" took me to a local Gander Mountain store and a large weekend gun show. Between both venues I handled three new Henry Golden Boys and three new Marlin 39A's. Sure, that's only three samples out of thousands of rifles, but in each case the action when cocking the Henry was noticeably smoother than the Marlin. In each case the trigger on the Henry was noticeably crisper -- almost like a 1911.

Not looking for an argument, and as I said earlier Your Mileage May Vary.

I got the Henry for my wife for Christmas. She wanted something gold. Still in the dog house. My wife has the new Marlin 336 and it is not like the older Marlins. The action was real rough and had to take to Williams Gunsite to have it worked on. The Marlin barrel with the Micro Groove is very accurate but the newer actions on the Marlin suck and not as smooth as the Henry. I will be getting another Henry for myself. Since Marlin was sold it not the same gun I owned 20 years ago. The Marlin 795 auto is a great gun and the upper grade lever actions are ok.

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“There are hundreds of millions of gun owners in this country, and not one of them will have an accident today. The only misuse of guns comes in environments where there are drugs, alcohol, bad parents, and undisciplined children. Period.” Ted Nugent

My hands-on experience with both guns was at the local Gander Mountain and at a local gun show. In all, I handled three Marlin 39A's and three Henry Golden Boys. In all three cases, the guns were new manufacture and in all three cases the Marlin was noticeably rougher cocking than the Henry. And the trigger pull on all three examples was what I described. Hey, that's just three out of thousands, but as I said, YMMV -- Your Mileage May Vary.

Now, I wouldn't doubt that older models of the 39A might be silky smooth, but I didn't see any of those.

I have to agree--I'm a lever action nut, and have numerous Marlins, Winchesters, etc--the Henry .22 has one of the slickest actions off the shelf of any lever action made today. A great bargain!!!

I ALSO HAVE ALWAYS WANTED A LEVER ACTION .22 BUT COULD NEVER FIND ONE AT GOOD DEAL. I FINALLY FOUND A MARLIN 39 & IT SHOOTS REAL GOOD.
THEN I FOUND A HENRY 001 MODEL & IT WAS REAL SMOOTH OUT OF THE BOX!! SO SMOOTH THAT DAUGHTER #2 TOOK IT HOME SO I HAD TO GET ANOTHER HENRY FOR DAUGHTER #3! MY WIFE & SON LIKE THE MARLIN SO I ENDED UP GETTIN' ANOTHER MODEL 39 SO EVERYONE HAS ONE TO SHOOT 'CEPT ME! SO I FINALLY FOUND A 9422 MAG FOR A GOOD DEAL SO THAT ONE IS MINE
THEY ALL SHOOT GOOD BUT THE HENRY IS THE SMOOTHER ONE OF THE BUNCH. IT JUST DEPENDS ON WHAT YA LIKE!!

The Marlin is a full size rifle, get one and don't look back, very accurate for a 22 lever and very nicely made.
The Henry's are nice rifles, great finish, but the internals are all held by an aluminum piece. They seem to hold up, but I have my doubts if the Henrys will be shooting 50 years from now, the Marlin will.
You can have the marlins trigger and action worked by a good smith and made much better than it is. The Henry's do have a nice trigger.
I don't like aluminum when you have something that takes the force to operate such as a lever action. Aluminum may be fine on other guns, but a lever action just makes me wonder how many rounds it will fire before getting sloppy. All the internal parts in the Henry are held by an aluminum box that fits inside of the nice pretty looking action housing. Who knows, it may hold up just fine, but I'm old school, I like steel.

I prefer steel too but the Henry is a fine rifle. The Henry's of today will still be going strong in 50+ years. They may not be as pretty as they are now but they will still be shooters. I've said it before but I had a Marlin 39A and I wish I had it back but I wouldn't give up my GB for it.

Don`t know where you seen a Marlin 39 that was rough or a Henery that was smooth. Nothing wrong with a Henery, but the Marlin is a much better gun. I have had guys tell me how good their Henery shoot, but have never seen one out shoot a Marlin, ever.

From that statement methinks you've never seen a Henry shoot or handled a Henry or a new Marlin.